RACHAEL THOMP­SON-KING

rachael.king@guardian.co.tt

New­ly crowned Pre­mier Di­vi­sion cham­pi­on school Na­pari­ma Col­lege will be back on the field this af­ter­noon, chas­ing a sec­ond ti­tle in the Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League (SS­FL) when it faces La Ro­maine Sec­ondary in the South Zone quar­ter­fi­nals of the Co­ca-Co­la In­ter­col Tour­na­ment.

The teams will meet in the sec­ond match of a dou­ble-head­er at the Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um in Mara­bel­la at 3.30 pm. The open­ing match-up will see Pleas­antville Sec­ondary tak­ing on Moru­ga Sec­ondary from 1.30 pm.

Na­pari­ma, coached by for­mer na­tion­al cap­tain An­gus Eve, en­ters this phase of the SS­FL as the lone un­beat­en team emerg­ing from the Pre­mier Di­vi­sion with an un­beat­able 34 points from 10 wins and four draws af­ter 14 rounds of match­es in the 15-team com­pe­ti­tion.

The South-based team will get its first taste of ac­tion since claim­ing the ti­tle on the fi­nal day of the Shell/First Cit­i­zens-spon­sored the com­pe­ti­tion on Wednes­day. En­ter­ing one point be­hind the then leader Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege, Na­pari­ma need­ed a win against Trin­i­ty Col­lege Mo­ka. Pre­sen­ta­tion mean­while trav­elled to vis­it third-place San Juan North Sec­ondary, who were still in with a chance of win­ning the ti­tle when the match start­ed.

His­to­ry will show the in­tense round of match­es re­sult­ed with Pre­sen­ta­tion be­ing held by San Juan, 1-1 which helped de­cide the ti­tle as Na­pari­ma was bril­liant on the day against Trin­i­ty Mo­ka, pre­vail­ing with a 2-0 win and crowned the cham­pi­on.

Na­pari­ma's op­po­nent to­day La Ro­maine Sec­ondary earned the right to play in the quar­ter­fi­nal af­ter edg­ing Princes Town West, 1-0 on Thurs­day.

A dou­ble-head­er is al­so sched­uled in the North Zone In­ter­col com­pe­ti­tion this af­ter­noon at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um in Mu­cu­rapo, Port-of-Spain and will see three Pre­mier Di­vi­sion teams in ac­tion.

In the open­ing quar­ter­fi­nal match, Queen's Roy­al Col­lege (QRC), who placed sixth, will seek to hold off the chal­lenge of Blan­chisseuse Sec­ondary at 3 pm while two hours lat­er, it will be the bat­tle of the "Saints" with St Mary's Col­lege (CIC) meet­ing St An­tho­ny Col­lege. CIC was a ninth-place fin­ish­er while St An­tho­ny's filled the 12th spot in the Pre­mier Di­vi­sion's fi­nal stand­ings.

The "West­moor­ing Tigers" of St An­tho­ny ’s made light work of St Fran­cis Col­lege on Fri­day, seal­ing an easy 8-0 vic­to­ry to reach the quar­ter­fi­nals.